Meant To Be
by ochster
Summary: A ronhr fanfic, a normal one, quidditch, adventure, DADA, newts..everything. but its their sixth year!
1. Back to the Beginning

Harry,Ron,Hermione,Ginny and Neville walked around the Hogwarts Express and finally found an empty carriage. The train left Kings' Cross Station and chugged away.

In about two hours time, everyone was nibbling on snacks either brought from home or brought on the train.Hermione, who was a sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy along with Harry,Ron and Neville, had taken out her _Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6 by Miranda Goshwak_ and her head was buried in it.Ginny, who was taking her OWLs this year, had her Defence against the Dark Arts book out and she was observing the pictures carefully.She obviously wanted to be ahead of her class.Harry and Ron were busy chatting away about who would be the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher this year since Professor Umbridge , their teacher the year before, had been taken away into the Forbidden forest by centaurs.Neville was keeping himself busy by reading an old edition of the _Quibbler,_which had Harry's interview by Rita Skeeter.

"Remember last year? Everything seems so clear to me..." said Ron, heaving a sigh.That was enough.Harry squeezed his eyes as he remembered the day he has lost Sirius, his only living relative then.He had never really gotten to know Sirius all that well, and had never really gotten over the fact that he was an orphan again, with no one to turn to for advice. He made it a condition to do his best at everything , especially Quidditch, as sixth year was considered as the foundation for their NEWTs the next year..Ron, who saw Harry's face, immediately quietened down.Everyone was looking at Harry." Ron!" said Hermione in a voice that was slightly over-bearing.Ron flushed a crimson colour and said sorry to harry.The rest of the ride was a rather quiet one.

Once they reached Hogwarts,they climbed onto the carriages pulled by threstrals, whom by now everyone could see, and made their way to Hogwarts Castle.The Great Hall was as crowded and lively as usual.Harry saw the first years goggle at the sight of the hall.

The sorting began." Archibald, Bryan!" Professor McGonagall called out in her usual, curt voice.Harry and Ron yawned." This begins to get more and more boring every year!" Ron blurted out loudly.Hermione, as usual, was paying one-hundred-percent attention to the sorting.She also listened to Professor Dumbledore's speech word for word.She had come to the conclusion that every beginning-of-the-year speech always had some hint about things that would happen through out the semster.Harry and Ron scanned the row of teachers sitting on the either side of Professor Dumbledore." I hope we get someone as good as Professor Lupin!Whatmore, we have our NEWTs next year! We certainly need a good teacher!" said Ron excitedly, remembering his third year teacher, who had been the only teacher to teach him something useful to his standard.Hermione immediately turned around.She was staring at Ron mutely.Never before had anyone seen Ronald Weasley speak like that before.Harry had been wondering the same thing.

On the right of Professor Dumbledore, was Professor Minerva McGonagall, the Transfigurations teacher, then Professor Flitwick, the charms teacher, who was sitting on three large books to hoist himself high enough to reach the table, followed by Professor Sinistra, the Astronomy teacher.Harry wondered what Professor Sinistra was like.Ron continued for him." Professor Sprout, Snape , Hagrid, Trelawney and um..... an empty chair, must be for our new teacher..."

The food then arrived, distracting their thought while they engulfed themselves with food.Sir Nick, the Gryffindor house ghost, entered the feast by popping his almost-detached head through the chicken soup." ARGH!!!!!!" a first year cried out loud." Sorry," was the meek reply." Aah..first years.....welcome to Gryffindor house! I'm your house ghost,Sir Nicholas De Mimsy Porpington!"The first years stared blankly at the ghost." Or you can just call him Sir Nick!" said Seamus Finnigan , one of Harry's sixth year dorm-mates.Everyone, especially Ron, was enjoying their first dinner of the new semester.Even Hermione was havinh a rather _interesting _conversation with Ginny Weasley about her experience with OWLs.Ginny, it seemed , was going to end up as another Hermione Granger according to Ron.

Suddenly, the doors of the great hall opened again, and a lady, who looked vaguely familiar to Harry,Ron,Hermione and Ginny, walked into the hall.The, it struck Harry.It was Nymphadora Tonks, an auror and also a part of the Order of the Phoenix, a group hekd by Professor Dumbledore himself, so know more information about Lord Voldemort and his troops, also known as the Death-Eaters.the trio tried to get Tonks to turn around, but it was to no avail.She walked down the middle aisle, and took a seat beside Professor Trelwaney.." sorry to bother you inbetween your scrumptious meal," said Professor Dumbledore,smiling at the students before him," But it is my duty, to present to you, your Defence Against the Dark arts teacher, Nymphadora Tonks, whjo prefers to be called by her surname, Tonks."Tonks waved her hand in greeting and blushed slightly.

"I have a feeling this year's going to be a rather different one," said Harry, totally ignoring his dinner." Tonks is certainly going to be as good as Lupin, if not, better!"


	2. The First Day

Harry clambered up to his dorm and took a seat on his four-poster bed. Ron and Hermione, being prefects, had to guide first years to the common room. Suddenly, Harry noticed a vaguely familiar piece of parchment lying on the top of his drawer in his dorm. It read, "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes! Your practical jokes right to your doorstep! Buy one! Get your jokes NOW! Don't delay, or you'll pay!" Harry chuckled to himself .Just then, Ron, followed by Seamus, Neville and Dean Thomas, walked in. Harry showed them the parchment and they all had a good laugh over it.Everyone, tired from their long trip to Hogwarts and the hullabaloo at the Great Hall, fell asleep easily, even with Neville's usual snores. Harry was the last to fall asleep as he fancied a chat with Sirius, and looked out into the star-studded sky to find Sirius, his godfather.

Since he slept the latest, Harry found himself the last one to get out of bed. Even Ron had gotten up and was changing into his robes. Harry remembered that it was a Sunday and hence there were no lessons. In about half an hours time, both of them went down to the hall for their breakfast.

In the hall, they met Hermione, who was once again pouring over some books which Harry and Ron couldn't identify. Soon, Hermione realised that Ron was down and asked him, "Have you seen what your brothers have done?" waving the form which she had obviously caught sight of .Ron sighed loudly. "Mum says that its fine since they seem to be very well off. They've already made tons of money! They _want _people like us to buy practical joke stuff. Godd.....but at least they didn't go off to the Ministry like Percy did." Ron's voice trailed off. Money had always been a problem at the Weasley's.

Ron and Harry spent the rest of the day playing Quidditch and taking walks around Hogwarts Castle , and of course, they went to see Hagrid along with Hermione.

Hagrid's hut was considerably different from the last time they had seen it. the furniture had been moved around, he had some pictures hung on the walls, and basically, the whole place looked......different." How's it eh?" Hagrid asked them." It looks.....exquisite.." said Hermione, staring at Ron and Harry. Appalled, they had no choice but to agree with Hermione.

Back in the Gryffindor common room, people were asking each other what jokes they wanted to buy. _"Ron was right," _Harry thought to himself_, "They're making enough money to even donate!" _Harry had always wished that he could share his Gringotts vault with the Weasleys. Feeling rather glum, Harry went to bed early as he had a long day to go tomorrow.

The sun rised early and Harry and Ron got out of bed and scanned through their timetables." Double transfigurations, double charms, double history of magic and double care of magical creatures! That's..McGonagall, Flitwick, Binns and Hagrid. Guess that's not all too bad.." Ron said, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. They hurried down to breakfast with their bookbags filled.

They met Hermione at the Great Hall, who was eating some toast. After a nourishing meal, they headed towards Professor McGonagall's Transfigurations room.

Transfigurations was long and tiring. Professor McGonagall gave the class a long speech about the importance of NEWTs." NEWTs will be the starting step on what you want to work as," she said. Ron and Harry looked at each other and snickered. They then began to learn how difficult the transfigurations they were going to learn that year would be and hence Professor McGonagall gave them a revision of what they had learnt the previous years. Ron had a hard time since he had never practiced during his second year as his wand was considered disastrous by Professor McGonagall.

After Transfigurations, the trio went for Charms with Professor Flitwick. Professor Flitwick was a very short person and was hence standing on his table. the room smelt of fresh lavender. "Good morning class! Now, let's get to work immediately! Protean Charms! Who can tell me what a Protean Charm is?" he asked, trying to be curt. As usual, Hermione thrusted her arm up and earned Gryffindor five points.

Then, they hurried down for lunch and after that, had more lessons, History of Magic and Care of Magical Creatures.

Later that evening, Harry and Ron decided to keep up with homework, as they were more serious about wanting to become aurors. Professor McGonagall walked into the Gryffindor common room with what Ron thought, was a smile on her face. It was only then that the duo realised that she was walking towards them. Puzzled, they waited for her arrival." Move somewhere more quite, Potter. Mr Weasley, I guess you'll find out sometime, but still, you can come along." She said. Harry and Ron followed suit.

"Harry, you've been elected ad the Gryffindor Quidditch team captain now since Ms Johnson passed out last year. "That was all Harry heard. His mouth was open in awe.


	3. Let The Stress Begin

Harry stood there, in a corner of the common room, zapped. Quidditch captain for Gryffindor? Harry didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad one.

He had to hold try-outs, which always looked disastrous. He needed to find a pair of beaters and three chasers. Harry sighed. Only he and Ron were still on the team. They had Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper, but they didn't seem all too keen on playing again. All Ron felt he could do was to pat Harry on the back. Harry felt that his first day couldn't get any worse and hence went straight to bed.

It was only three days later that Harry decided to break the news to Hermione. Hermione was the total opposite of Harry and was practically advising Harry on everything he could do.

School work was increasingly difficult, due to their NEWTs. Professor Snape had begun to teach them to make the Polyjuice Potion and Snape's disgust for Harry did not decrease. Draco Malfoy , a Slytherrin sixth-year, smirked whenever Professor Snape commented on Harry's potion. As usual, Hermione who had done the potion before, had no problem in making it. Neville, however, had lost his hair of Seamus, which he had found in Seamus' pillow earlier that day.

During History of Magic, Professor Binns, the old ghost, had bored everyone's souls out with a monotonous speech about house-elf enslavement. Hermione was furiously copying notes about the speech and Ron was pretty sure he saw the title of the parchment she was writing on. It was entitled, "S.P.E.W." , also known as "The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare". Ron and Harry looked at each other and exchanged sniggers. Harry thought about he try-outs and both of them began to take out some parchment of their own and began drawing out some plans and diagrams.

Back in the common room that night, Harry decided to do it and get it over with." Attention everyone1 I'm your new Quidditch captain and since we've almost had the whole team pass out last year, we need two beaters and three chasers. Try-outs will be held next Thursday, on the pitch. If you want to try-out for either position, give your name to either me or Ron Weasley. Thanks!" this caused a lot of commotion in the common room. Harry wondered if he could manage begin captain. He only thought about asking Hermione to help them pick out players. Ron sighed and the only thing they could do was to wait. Like Professor Dumbledore had told him some years ago, only with understanding, there can be acceptance and only with acceptance, there can be recovery.


	4. The TryOuts and Ample Disasters

The next week scurried past and so did their homework. They were keeping up with their homework, but they never found enough time to spend to do things they liked. What more, he was Quidditch captain, if he didn't do anything, nobody would.

It was Thursday. Ron and Harry had collected four parchments of names of people who wanted to try out. Ron picked out some names;" Seamus, Ginny, Colin....WHAT? PARVATI ? She's so petty! I'm telling you, she's not going to be able to survive in Quidditch. ". Ron was obviously appalled. Harry shook his head, took his Firebolt and the pieces of parchments and walked out of their dorm. Ron had no choice but to follow suit.

The Quidditch pitch was quite full of students and Madame Hooch could be seen organizing them. Harry's heart leapt. He wondered how Angelina had managed to do this herself.

Soon, the try-outs began. Harry was alarmed by the number of students who were trying for five places. Some people couldn't even fly well. First up was Michael Horovitz, a third year. Michael was pathetic. He caught the Quaffle in front of his face and fell off his broom. He was knocked out and was taken to the hospital wing by Madame Hooch.

Everyone after him became slightly worried and soon enough, there were bloody noses, broken limbs and other catastrophes. Even Ginny, who used to be seeker, was not all that great.

Seamus and Parvati turned out to be slightly better, but Harry and Ron thought that they just need some brushing up. Ron gaped. He had never seen Parvati on her broom, so carefree about how she looked and she certainly had become better than before. Professor McGonagall passed by the Quidditch pitch and Harry was sure he saw her smile at him.

Harry and Ron returned to their dorms after the try-outs. It had certainly drained them out and Ron was beginning to get irritated. Harry ignored him and scanned through the list of people who wanted to be on the team. The results were obvious. "Chasers can be Ginny, Seamus and Parvati. As for the beaters....." He thought aloud so that Ron could tell him his thoughts. "No probs!" he replied. "The beaters can be....lessee... Those two bubble-heads who ended up whacking each other, but they're the only chance we've got. They know what it's like playing against other houses." Ron seemed deep in thought, but Harry shook off the feeling as he thought Ron could never seem so serious. He was so tired and just went to bed without changing. This had been one Thursday too long.

The next day, Friday, Ron and Harry were awakened by Hermione. Ron blushed furiously when Hermione entered their dorm and he was still in his pajamas. "Look at this!" said Hermione, whose expression on her face was not easy to understand. Harry immediately put on his glasses and looked at the Daily prophet, the newspaper. Ron though, wanted to sleep in but actually wanted to hide his face from Hermione. But all the same, he too got up. Harry gaped. It was an article. It read:

"_Sirius Black............In Bulgaria?_

_Sirius Black, murderer from Azkaban, has been reported to be in Bulgaria, hiding from dementors and Ministry of Magic workers. Kingsley Shacklebolt, who is currently in charge of the hunt for Sirius Black, said that he had heard a lady, who wished to be unnamed, talking to a friend, and she said that she had been to Bulgaria recently on a business trip and there had been "funny" attacks , just like when Black was here in London."_

Harry was outraged, but he kept on reading.

"_If Black is out there, there'll be more deaths, or maybe there will be no more deaths since he is scared, said Cornelius Fudge, a member of the Ministry. Fudge, who used to be Minister of Magic, had some problems a few years ago with black. All we can tell everyone is that we are not sure of anything and to be careful. You never know what's going around!"_

Harry didn't know what to say. He just fell back onto his bed and buried his head in his hands. Luckily, only Ron and Hermione were in their dorm and only they knew what had truly happened. "Harry," Hermione said in a low but gentle voice." It's no use crying now. He's gone; it's a huge loss for everyone. Well, almost everyone. And how much you cry, Sirius will never return. Sirius will never physically return, but he will be living within you, guiding you..." Harry cheered up a little bit and Hermione gave him a friendly hug. Ron scowled and looked down.

Hermione then left the dorm, leaving Harry and Ron alone again. Harry could read Ron's face. "You like her, right?" he asked him slowly. He knew Ron wasn't very good at hiding emotions. Ron just looked at Harry blankly and then nodded, blushing a bright purple shade. They said nothing to each other and went for breakfast.

They spent their free time that day indoors, as it was raining, and they managed to finish off all their homework. Harry and Ron decided to get some fresh air and went out for a walk. The grass smelt great and a breeze was blowing. They returned to their dorm only writing an owl. A long owl.


	5. Professor Tonks

Ron wondered who Hermione would have been writing to at that time of the day. Harry suggested some weirdo like Wendylin the Weird, even though she was fictional. Ron wasn't assured, but he agreed with Harry. Ron had begun to realise that he liked Hermione, and he really did not know what to do. Even Harry had found out. Ron just couldn't sleep that night. He was thinking about the owl.

Morning soon arrived and they were back to lessons. Harry realised that Ron had not obviously gotten enough sleep the previous night. He woke him up and they went down for their breakfast, and then History of Magic.

Ron took full advantage of History of Magic since he was sleepy and nobody paid attention anyway. He put his book up and fell asleep behind it. Harry loyally woke him up at the end of the lesson. They left the class and people who followed behind began to mutter. It was only then that Hermione realized that they had Defense against the Dark Arts next. That meant that they got to see how good Professor Tonks was. Happily, they went down to the dungeons, where their lessons were usually held. Ron, by then, had fuly woken up.

Professor Tonks was dressed in normal black robes and she had fluffy brown hair with two streaks of light brown. She looked much more dignified and her face wore a smile. She saw Harry, Ron and Hermione and smiled even more at them. Harry gave her a thumbs-up and went to his seat.

Professor Tonks greeted everyone cheerfully and began the lesson with a little bit about herself. She told the class about how she was a metamorphamagus, how she was in Hogwarts and what she did as an auror. After that, she began rattling off a speech about the importance of NEWTs. In the middle, Seamus plucked up his courage and told Professor Tonks that they had listened to the same speech several times already. She then asked the class some questions about NEWTs and since everyone could answer them, she was convinced that they were okay. That was just the beginning of the lesson.

Professor Tonks began to teach the class some effective spells for defense. They learnt what patronuses do and how they could be brought about. Thinking about D.A, or Dumbledore's Army, Harry grinned to himself. They learnt the incantation, "Expecto Patronum!" and they got to have some hands-on fun. Harry decided that Professor Tonks was going to be a great teacher. A teacher closer to their age than to a proper teacher.

Harry began producing his stag patronus , Hermione's was an otter, while Ron's was a dog. Professor Tonks was indeed a good teacher. She didn't even assign them homework, but only told them to practice their patronuses. Happily and surely, everyone had accepted professor Tonks as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

Harry and Ron found Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper in the Gryffindor common room. They had to be told that they would be beaters for the team. They also told Seamus, Ginny and Parvati that they were chasers. They had to meet at the changing rooms the next evening for robe fitting. Everyone seemed to be quite happy about the players. Happy that there had been no complaining, Harry went to bed.

Harry couldn't sleep for some time that night. But as time passed by, he did. Suddenly, a dream, or nightmare rather, popped into his mind. _Him....Voldemort....was torturing a person. Who was it? He was...tall.......thin......he looked vaguely familiar. Suddenly he turned around. It was Remus Lupin. Voldemort was going to hurt Lupin. The room they were in looked familiar too_. It was somewhere Harry knew, but couldn't identify at that moment. _Voldemort turned into a snake. He bit Lupin on the arm. Piercing cries filled the air. Flashes of spells were seen. Lupin, though, seemed unharmed_. Harry's scar seared with pain. He tossed and turned in bed, trying to fight the pain_. Voldemort slithered towards Lupin again. Lupin cast another spell. His robes were drenched in blood._ Harry gripped his scar, it had never hurt so much before. He woke up with a start, screamed "LUPIN!!!" and fainted on his bed. Harry had given into his pain.


End file.
